The present invention relates to projection systems having micromirrors and micromirror arrays. The present invention also relates to integrated circuits having at least one deflectable element.
Various technologies have been proposed for projection and display systems such as those utilizing spatial light modulation employing various materials. Among these are silicon-based micromechanical spatial light modulation (SLM) devices in which a large portion of the device is optically active. In such systems, micromirrors may deflect in one or more directions. For instance, in architectures that rely on a passive drive scheme, a voltage bias is accomplished by an address electrode. Once the mirror rotates, the electrode floats and the mirror maintains its deflected position. As the bias is reset, the mirror rotates back to the flat state at a rate that is limited by the hinge spring constant of the micromirror device. The hinge spring constant typically results in a reset cycle that is slower than the drive cycle. This limits the ability of the micromirror device to twitch at high frequencies. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a micromirror architecture that could facilitate high reset frequencies, while providing high efficiency and operational integrity.